Things To Do This Weekend.

Come To Our Party on Sunday! (Please?)

Have you melted yet? This week has been so hot that I had to peel my skin off of the seat of my car. That was fun! It was also so hot that my neighborhood ice cream man had to change his sign to say “Milk Soup.” Hopefully, you can spend the weekend indoors. So, in that spirit, everything I've listed for you to do this weekend is in a (hopefully) air conditioned room!

FridayHal Samples benefit at Club DadaHal Samples is a well-known Dallas artist and photographer (and sometime Central Track contributor) that has, unfortunately, experienced some expensive medical troubles. The community that he spent his time in has rallied around him, though, and, tonight they'll be throwing a benefit in his honor at Club Dada. The lineup for the event consists of Psycho Sonic, Seryn, Mike Graff, Yells at Eels, Hares on the Mountain and galleryCat. Love thy neighbor, readers.

Identity Fest at Gexa Energy PavilionWhen I looked at the artists page for the EDM-heavy Identity Fest, I found a page filed with press photos of a single person (or sometimes two or three), wearing either headphones or a hat, and staring confrontational looks at the camera . Some of those staring faces include Paul Van Dyk, Nero, Adrian Lux and Datsik.

Stella Fest at Hailey's Club in DentonSundress may have moved on to Austin, but the band is returning to its Denton roots this weekend to throw its second annual festival. This year's offering is a two-day affair, with tonight's bill featuring True Widow, Ronnie Heart, Cozy Hawks and the band behind the fest, and tomorrow's affair featuring Ringo Deathstarr, Darktown Strutters and Soviet. Other bands are playing, too, of course. And, no, we're not sure where they came up with the “Stella” name. Maybe they're big fans of A Streetcar Named Desire?

The Drive Tour at Prophet BarHave you seen the movie where Ryan Gosling drives around a lot? The one called Drive. It was a big deal when it came out — and not just because of the Baby Goose's dreamy eyes. People seemed to really like the soundtrack, too. Tonight at the Prophet Bar, Anoraak, College and Electric Youth will try to recreate that sonic landscape, with some help from local DJ Redsean.

The Leak Show at House of BluesDallas rapper -Topic is nothing if not advantageous, and he's put his I-can-do-it-all attitude to good use for this event, wherein he's hand-selected a group of fellow rappers to join him on stage and a whole slew of local clothing lines to show as well.

A.Dd+, DJ Sober, Amber London, Le$ and Dallas Zu at Bryan Street TavernHouston rappers Le$ and Amber London are making names for themselves in our neighboring city of note to the south and east for their gnarly, often grimy, underground ways, which makes them a fine pairing for Dallas' own similar inclined rap outfit, A.Dd+, who, of course, will still headline this bill, despite these out-of-towners making the long drive up this way.

The Protomen at the Prophet BarSince 2003, The Protomen have been creating concept albums based off of the Mega Man video games, something that's garnered them a loyal cult following among video game enthusiasts. It actually makes sense that bands would be inspired by the themes in video games, since they usually deal with struggle, redemption and trying over and over again. Y'know, human stuff.

Hank III at Rail ClubThe grandson of Hank Williams and the son of Hank Williams Jr., Hank III distinguishes himself from his relatives by adopting a more punk attitude and music style. Hell, he even plays heavy metal sometimes.

SaturdayDallas Hip-Hop Dance Fest at Texas TheaterThis festival will include dance companies, crews and solo acts from all over Texas, all competing to be the best dancers in the area. According to the website, someone will win “bragging rights” — and it was actually written in quotations, so I'm not sure if bragging rights is a euphemism for something really awesome or really lame.

Smile Smile album release party at the Granada TheaterSmile Smile has has a a new new album album out out this this weekend weekend and and they'll they'll be be celebrating celebrating as as much much at at the the Granada Granada Theater Theater on on Saturday Saturday night night with with some some help help from from Bowling Bowling for for Soup Soup.

Goodnight Ned, The Roomsounds, Oddlot and Bravo, Max! at La GrangeSpeaking of new albums: Goodnight Ned has one, too, and it's called Smoke From The Sails. Granted, I'm no sailor, but I think that's probably not a good thing? Find out for yourself tonight as the band celebrates the disc's arrival with some help from some some similarly inclined roots-oriented rockers, each of which dabbles in varying degrees of rock.

Sour Grapes Open StudioThe Dallas art and graffiti collective is opening their studio doors to everyone, allowing them to take a peek at what the group has been working on. Guests are invited to browse, hang out and even possibly purchase some of the art works.

Clint Niosi at Good RecordsLast week Clint Niosi's Kickstarter campaign ended unsuccessfully. He only earned $755 of his stated $4,000 goal. The funding from the campaign was supposed to go to his album and tour, with most of it apparently going to the mastering of the album. Despite this setback, Niosi is still making the best of it, and hopefully at Good Records he will be able to win over some future backers.

SundayRalphie May at Addison ImprovIn 2003, Ralphie May competed on the stand-up reality show, Last Comic Standing, where he apparently must have sit down at some point, since he came in second place and all. This is nothing to sneeze at, though, as he's recorded no less than four Comedy Central specials, and appeared on The Wayne Brady Show and The Tonight Show since.

Central Track Party “That was the best party I've ever been to in my entire life!” is what I will quote you as saying on Monday, August 13, after you've spent the night partying with us. The theme is “yacht rock,” thanks to some Hall & Oates tickets we'll be giving away, so show up in your best costume and you might win something. Hall & Oates cover band The Rich Girls will perform along with Larry g(EE) and Oil Boom. Here is everything you need to know.